Photographer Captures Otherworldly Images Inspired by UFO Sightings

In the late '60s and early '70s, an unusual amount of UFO sightings were reported by citizens of the small town of Pudasjärvi, Finland. Even though Finnish photographer Maria Lax wasn’t around to experience them firsthand, a family connection to the phenomenon inspired her to make it the subject of her latest project.

The idea was first planted after she came across a copy of Pudasjärven Ufot during a visit to her parents’ home. The book is a collection of first-person accounts of UFO sightings compiled by her grandfather, Soini Lax, when he was working as a journalist in the '70s. Fascinated by the contents of the book, Lax took it upon herself to reach out to some of the people her grandfather had interviewed decades earlier.

She's since spoken with a dozen people, many of whom shared stories of being followed in the deserted woods by mysterious, bright lights. “The area is surrounded by a huge wilderness so you can imagine how eerie something like that is,” Lax told WIRED. “The people often describe these lights as beautiful and changing in color, and completely silent.”

She’s now attempting to capture the mood of these experiences through a series of experimental photographs published on her Instagram page. The pictures paint scenes of strange lights in isolated areas, and witnesses peering out of windows illuminated by bright colors. Her process involves seeking out places reminiscent of the accounts she’s gathered and using available light from sources like passing cars and long exposures to create the eerie effects.

The project is meant to work as a companion to her short film Lights, which will explore similar themes and visuals. For more of her stunningly creepy photography, check out Maria Lax on Instagram.

Orange is the New Black is the new black, at least as far as Netflix viewers are concerned. The women-in-prison dramedy may have premiered in 2013, but it’s still got viewers hooked. Just as they did in 2017, HighSpeedInternet.com took a deep dive into Netflix analytics using Google Trends to find out which shows people in each state were searching Netflix for throughout the year. While there was a little bit of crossover between 2016 and 2017, new series like American Vandal and Mindhunter gave viewers a host of new content. But that didn’t stop Orange is the New Blackfrom dominating the map; it was the most searched show in 15 states.

Coming in at a faraway second place was American Vandal, a new true crime satire that captured the attention of five states (Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). Even more impressive is the fact that the series premiered in mid-September, meaning that it found a large and rabid audience in a very short amount of time.

Folks in Alaska, Colorado, and Oregon were all destined to be disappointed; Star Trek: Discovery was the most searched-for series in each of these states, but it’s not yet available on Netflix in America (you’ve got to get CBS All Access for that, folks). Fourteen states broke the mold a bit with shows that were unique to their state only; this included Big Mouth in Delaware, The Keepers in Maryland, The OA in Pennsylvania, GLOW in Rhode Island, and Black Mirror in Hawaii.

Check out the map above to see if your favorite Netflix binge-watch matches up with your neighbors'. For more detailed findings, visit HighSpeedInternet.com.

Thanks to the internet, people around the world can conduct global research, trade tips, and find faraway friends without ever leaving their couch. Not everyone pays the same price for these digital privileges, though, according to new data visualizations spotted by Thrillist.

To compare internet user prices in each country, cost information site HowMuch.net created a series of maps. The data comes courtesy of English market research consultancy BDRC and Cable.co.uk, which teamed up to analyze 3351 broadband packages in 196 nations between August 18, 2017 and October 12, 2017.

In the U.S., for example, the average cost for internet service is $66 per month. That’s substantially more than what browsers pay in neighboring Mexico ($27) and Canada ($55). Still, we don’t have it bad compared to either Namibia or Burkina Faso, where users shell out a staggering $464 and $924, respectively, for monthly broadband access. In fact, internet in the U.S. is far cheaper than what residents in 113 countries pay, including those in Saudi Arabia ($84), Indonesia ($72), and Greenland ($84).

On average, internet costs in Asia and Russia tend to be among the lowest, while access is prohibitively expensive in sub-Saharan Africa and in certain parts of Oceania. As for the world’s cheapest internet, you’ll find it in Ukraine and Iran.

Check out the maps below for more broadband insights, or view HowMuch.net’s full findings here.